Help using strcpy for arrays

Well this is my first attempt at receiving help from the community. I am currently a Computer Science major at a University and am in my second semester. My current teacher has not been of much help outside of the class so I am hoping this community can.

Before the haters come at me, this is an assignment, but I am not asking for the assignment to be done for me. I am merely asking a question about an error I'm receiving. I want to understand what's going wrong, not have it done for me.

I am attempting to assign "randomChoice" as the array index of the "listOfWords" array then copy "listOfWords[randomChoice] to "selectedWord". I am not sure if it is that I do not fully understand the use of strcopy() or something wrong with my arrays. Hopefully you guys can help!

This is my error:

Code:

hangman.cc: In function ‘void SelectWord(char (*)[80], int, char*):
hangman.cc:84: error: invalid conversion from 'char' to 'const char*'

And my code:

Code:

#include <iostream>#include <fstream>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <cassert>
#include <cstring>


using namespace std;


//Global constants
const int MAX_WORDS = 80;
const int MAX_USED = 80;




//Function Declarations
    void ReadWords (char listOfWords[][MAX_USED], int numOfWords, ifstream& inFile);
    void SelectWord (char listOfWords[MAX_WORDS][MAX_USED], int numOfWords, char selectedWord[MAX_WORDS]);


    




//Call the functions to use in the program
int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
    char listOfWords[MAX_WORDS][MAX_USED];
    int numOfWords;
    char selectedWord[MAX_WORDS];
    
    ifstream inFile;
    srand(time(0));


    inFile.open(argv[1]);        //Open file
    assert(inFile);                //Check if file opened correctly
    
    
    //Function Calls
    ReadWords (listOfWords, numOfWords, inFile);
    SelectWord (listOfWords, numOfWords, selectedWord);
    
    
}


//Function will read in words from data file into a 2D array
void ReadWords (char listOfWords[MAX_WORDS][MAX_USED], int numOfWords, ifstream& inFile)    
{
    
    numOfWords = 0;
    
    while ((inFile.peek() != EOF) && (numOfWords < MAX_WORDS))
    {
        inFile.getline (listOfWords[numOfWords], 100, '\n');
        numOfWords++;
    }
    
    //Debugging - Array content check
    /*
    for(int i = 0; i < numOfWords; i++)
    {    
        cout << listOfWords[i] << endl;
    }
    */
}




void SelectWord (char listOfWords[MAX_WORDS][MAX_USED], int numOfWords, char selectedWord[MAX_WORDS])
{
    int randomChoice;
    randomChoice = rand()%numOfWords;
    char i;
    //Debugging - Generating random number check
    //cout << randomChoice << endl;
    
    strcpy(listOfWords[randomChoice], selectedWord[numOfWords]);
}

Code:

 strcpy(listOfWords[randomChoice], selectedWord[numOfWords]);

in the function SelectWord, you're asking strcpy to treat selectedWord as though it were an element within an array of strings. If selectedWord is meant to be the output and listOfWords is the source, then your backwards. Assuming other bits or okay, you *should* be able to clean up the error using.

Code:

 strcpy(selectedWord, listOfWords[randomChoice]);

If selectedWord is the string that you'd like to copy into listOfWords[randomChoice], then

Code:

 strcpy(listOfWords[randomChoice], selectedWord);

On a side note, strcpy() is evil due to being susceptible to a buffer overflow which could make your program vulnerable. Use strncpy() instead. This doesn't really matter for a program made for "educational" reasons but it would matter for a commercially made program. Point being, it is best to establish good C programming habits from the beginning even when you don't care about the security aspects.

Welcome to the board!

Euph11 needs to say whether they're learning C or C++.

Because at the moment, the code is that 'train-wreck waiting to happen' known as C/C++. A horrible mix of random things borrowed from each language.

Thanks for the help. ronin helped me fixed the problem and C_ntua also provided some useful information. Salem...I'm in the same boat you are from looking at my code. What I am being taught has not once been distinguished from C++ to C. I had been led to believe it was C++ all along but from reading things from the textbook and forums, it seems there are multiple things coming from C also. I agree with what you're saying, I have a feeling this is something I will have to learn for myself because the professor is not distinguishing the difference.